NewsNow, USGlass August 2011

Volume 46, Issue 7 - August 2011

NewsNow

Japan’s JS Group Corp. Acquires Permasteelisa for $819 Million

JS Group Corp. (JSGC) in Tokyo, through its consolidated subsidiary LIXIL Corp., has acquired the entire stock of Italy-based Permasteelisa from Cima Claddings S.A., a company indirectly controlled by the European private equity firms InvestIndustrial and Alpha.

According to the share purchase agreement, LIXIL will acquire 25,613544 common shares or 100-percent of the total shares issued and outstanding of Permasteelisa from Cima. The purchase price is expected to be approximately $819.4 million USD (573 million EUR). The transaction is subjected to the approval of competition laws in each country.

Permasteelisa will become a subsidiary of JSGC after the transaction, and help JSGC reinforce its Asian business, secure the U.S. and European markets, and further expand its business to the markets across the world, according to a news release issued by the company.

JS Group, headquartered in Tokyo, is not new to the curtainwall business. According to its website, the “group commands high market share in curtainwalls and sashes for commercial buildings and retail stores.” Among its wide-ranging housing-related businesses, Tokyo-based JS Group owns Japan’s fourth-largest aluminum sash company, Shin Nikkei, which it purchased in April 2010. Last October, the company purchased stake in a China-based curtainwall producer. In 2005, the group formed Asahi Tostem Exterior Building Materials Co. Ltd. as a joint venture of its exterior wall materials business, Tostem Corp., with Asahi
Glass Co. Ltd.

Permasteelisa, with its core business in high-end curtainwall, has operations in 27 countries. According to its website, the group generates approximately $1.4 billion USD annually.